Jon Trueblood, University of Iowa graduate student, working with one of the MOUDI impactors
I arrived here in San Diego on July 15, 2014 just in time to see everything working!!! This includes phytoplankton blooms occurring in multiple MART systems and of course the 33 m wave flume. I am so impressed with the students and postdocs who were able to get this first time every experiment going – the largest indoor phytoplankton bloom – a world record. I see many happy (and some tired) faces. What is clear is that everyone is now excited as we are starting to collect very significant data and many new chemistry findings are starting to be realized. These studies will focus on the molecular speciation and chemical complexity of the sea surface microlayer and of sea spray aerosol. A number of off-line and on-line analyses will be done to determine what molecular species are present in order to better understand the transfer of molecules from sea water, and the sea surface microlayer, into sea spray aerosol. This will give us more detailed information on the chemistry of sea spray aerosol. For off-line analysis of sea spray aerosol, a wide range of substrates are being used to collect particles for single particle analysis using a MOUDI impactor to get size resolved composition. Overall, CAICE investigators aim to analyze the chemical composition, structure, phase, hygroscopicity, and reactive properties of as many particles as possible. By the end of the experiment it is estimated that nearly one billion sea spray aerosol particles will be collected. That is right – one billion particles!!! (Another world record???) I can’t wait to see what we learn from these samples in the next few months.
In addition to the great science we continue to give tours to everyone who wants to see what we are doing. Saturday morning a group of high school and undergraduate students came by to view the wave flume here in the hydraulics lab at SIO. It was fun to see how they were excited to see the experiment and to talk to them about it. We discussed the importance of chemistry and the molecular fundamental knowledge needed to understand sea spray aerosol. We then all went out to the pier to see where the sea water came from and to take look at the other experiments there. We also enjoyed the beautiful view – what a great way to spend a Saturday morning!
Vicki Grassian, F. Wendell Miller Professor of Chemistry at the University of Iowa and CAICE, Co-Director
